約伯倫理 第 1240 章

The word of God is scattered in the cloud, when it is announced to unbelievers. For the Lord lifts up His voice in the cloud, when through the tongues of His preachers He forms an exhortation to the darkened hearts of unbelievers; and the rush of waters covers Him, when the throng of resisting peoples presses upon His well-doing members. For hence is that which is written: 'The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: Stand in the court of the Lord's house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, from which they come to worship in the house of the Lord, all the words which I have commanded thee' (Jer. 26:2). And a little after: 'And the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord.'

'And when Jeremiah had finished speaking, the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying: Let him die the death; why has he prophesied in the name of the Lord?' (Jer. 26:8). Behold, in the cloud the Lord lifted up His voice, because through an upright prophet He rebuked the dark nights of the proud. Behold, the rush of waters straightway covered Him, because from the peoples who rose up, incited also by the cause of their own reproof, He Himself endured all things in Jeremiah, who gave the words of reproof. Through Himself also the Lord lifted up His voice in the cloud, when, showing Himself present even with an assumed body, He preached to His persecutors many things veiled with the figures of enigmas.

In the cloud He lifted up His voice, because He sounded forth His truth as through a mist to unbelievers who would not follow it. Whence it is also well written in the books of Kings: 'The cloud filled the house of the Lord, and the priests could not minister because of the cloud' (1 Kings 8:10-11). For as their merits demanded, while the proud pontiffs of the Jews heard the divine mysteries through parables, the priests in the house of the Lord were unable, as it were, to minister because of the cloud. And they too in the Old Testament, while they despised to search out the mystical senses covered by the veil of the letter amid the dark mists of allegories, lost, because of the cloud, the ministry due to their faith.

To these the Lord also now uttered His voice in the cloud of His teaching, when He narrated even openly concerning Himself. For what is more open than: 'I and the Father are one' (John 10:30)? What could He say more openly than: 'Before Abraham was made, I am' (John 8:58)? But because the mist of unbelief had filled the minds of the hearers, an intervening cloud, as it were, hid the emitted ray of the sun. The rush of waters covers the preachers of the divine word, when unbelievers rage against them. For at this lifting up of His voice the rush of waters straightway covered Him, because against Him a throng of peoples, raging, soon rose up. For it is written:

'Therefore the Jews sought to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal to God' (John 5:18). Of this rush of waters He cries out through the Prophet: 'They compassed me about like water all the day; they compassed me about together' (Ps. 87:18). And again: 'Save me, O God, for the waters are come in even unto my soul' (Ps. 68:1). Which waters indeed He endured in Himself before death, but in His own members even after His ascension. For hence it is that He also cries out from on high: 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?' (Acts 9:4). Behold, He had already ascended into heaven, and yet Saul, still persecuting Him with the rush of the waters of unbelievers, and being a wave moister than the rest, was touching Him.

For He it is who through the good speaks what is right, and He it is who in the passion of the good is torn. Therefore, that by the wondrous unity of charity the Lord might show that it is He who preaches through the mouths of His saints to unworthy hearers, He says: 'Wilt thou lift up thy voice in the cloud?' And that He might show that it is He who suffers in His saints all adversities, He subjoined: 'And shall the rush of waters cover thee?' You understand: as it covers Me, whom all the wicked neither understand to be the one speaking through the preaching saints, nor see to be the one suffering through the dying. The Lord therefore narrates what He suffers from men, that the grief of the afflicted man may be mitigated, as if He openly says to him: Weigh My sufferings carefully, and temper your own with equanimity.

For it is far less for you to endure wounds than for Me to endure human things. Even the hearts of the just grow dark at the hidden inspirations of God. Yet still we can scrutinize these words more subtly, if we anxiously weigh in our hearts the heavenly gifts. Now indeed we are faithful, now we believe the things above which we hear, now we love the things which we believe. But while we are pressed by certain superfluous cares, we grow dark, overshadowed by confusion; and when the Lord instills into us, even such as we are, certain wondrous things to be perceived concerning Himself, He lifts up His voice, as it were, in the cloud. While He speaks Himself to our darkened minds, He who is not seen is heard, as it were, in a cloud.

For the things we know concerning Him are the highest, but nevertheless we do not yet see Him in that secret inspiration by which we are instructed. He therefore who offers indeed a locution to our hearts, but conceals His appearance, forms His voice, as it were, in a cloud. But behold, we now hear the words of God speaking Himself within us, and now we recognize with what continuance, with what zeal, we ought to cleave to His love; and yet from the summit of inward consideration we slip back to our accustomed things by the very mutability of this mortality, and we are softened by the ill-busy importunity of impending sins. When therefore He instills subtle things concerning Himself into our blind minds, He lifts up His voice in the cloud.

When our very understanding of God is overwhelmed by temptations, God Himself is covered as it were by waters. God does not forsake us even when He is spurned. But when our understanding of God is oppressed by the temptation of vices, God is covered, as it were, by the rush of waters in His voice. For we cast so many waters upon Him, as we turn over in our heart unlawful thoughts after the inspiration of His grace. Nor yet does He desert us even when we are oppressed, for He straightway returns to the mind, shakes off the mists of temptations, pours in the shower of compunction, and brings back the sun of subtle understanding;

and thus He shows how much He loves us, He who does not forsake us even when He is spurned, so that at least in this way the instructed human conscience may blush to admit temptations against Him, whom its Redeemer ceases not to unite even as it wanders. This He endures in us through Himself; this He bears from unbelievers through His own daily preachers. For His gift is repelled by the temptation rising up in us, and yet He is by no means recalled by our weakness from pouring in His inward gift. His words are publicly spurned, and yet He is restrained by no iniquity of unbelievers from dispensing the bounty of His grace. For when depraved men despise His teachings, He adds also miracles which they may venerate.

Whence, after the voice that is uttered, after the rush of the overflowing waters, it is aptly subjoined: